Established September 2006

Ladera Ranch II – Rancho Mission Viejo Company

I don’t have much information on this, so please share if you know something. Rancho Mission Viejo, probably the only other big landowner in Orange County other than The Irvine Company, is going to build another master planned community just south of Ladera Ranch (mostly east of the Antonio and Ortega Hwy intersection). I’ll call it Ladera Ranch II until I learn of the official name.

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It looks like there will be 12,530 homes built (in 5 villages) starting in 2008. The homes will be built on about 5,373 acres and the rest of the area should be open space. I took some survey regarding this several months ago and one of the things they were considering for this community was some sort of golf cart for each home. I wish I remembered the specifics. I also recall that there will be plenty of housing targetted towards seniors.

Here is a map of the overall plan for “Ladera Ranch II”:

Read on to see a detailed map of the first village…

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Anyone care to guess when the first homes here will really start selling? To me, it sure seems like there will be plenty of product available in Irvine and south of Irvine. Portola Springs is just starting to sell in two of the five enclaves. Orchard Hills, Stone Gate, and the homes in Planning Area 18 should be coming up soon. There will be plenty of homes built at the Tustin Base as well as at the Great Park. And don’t forget about Central Park West. Right now, there isn’t much at Ladera Ranch except the bigger homes in Covenant Hills. But if Ladera Ranch II is just around the corner, hopefully this will add to the competition between The Irvine Company and Lennar and start to bring prices down a bit.

A homebuilder called Baldwin from Newport Beach started Coto in the early nineties, but due to the real estate crash of the mid nineties, they were forced into BK. Lennar took over in 96, buying the partially completed property from creditors for VERY cheap prices … I think they bought about 2200 acres for about 20m.

I don’t know the exact terms of the deal, but I do know that Lennar cleaned house. They were so confident in their success in OC, they paid unimaginable prices for El Toro & Tustin.

Wouldn’t it be ironic is Lennar fell into the same situation as Baldwin did in the mid nineties.

I like Ladera, but noticed some realtor/flipper/investor/players have made some properties a permanent listing landmark in Ladera. Look at 2 Gilly Flower in Ladera. There was some 121 changes made to this listing. (check history). And from what we remember, the signs were up long before it was put in MLS. And the agent/realtor seemed to use the sign to attract buyers w/o any intention to get serious. And maybe that’s why they change commission between 2% to 5%, rent from $1700/mo to $8000/mo, price up and down and if sqft and model number is not always the same.